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Objective: Mental illness is a major contributor to disease burden in China. Guangdong province has a population of over 104 million. This province's health information system is inadequate, especially the mental health workforce and service response. This paper describes a field survey to assess the existing mental health workforce and service capacity in Guangdong.Method: A total of 125 major service providers in Guangdong were identified with the capacity to treat serious mental illness at all levels of the health system. These services were approached to complete a standardised survey based on the WHO Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems.Results: The survey identified 8498 mental health workers with 72.5% working in psychiatric hospitals. Service providers reported a treatment rate of 68.8% of a total of 430,000 people registered for treatment of severe mental illness, and only 28.4% of over a million people estimated to be experiencing severe mental illness. An inadequate mental health workforce was cited as a common barrier to treatment access.Conclusion: Guangdong province has a significant treatment gap for severe mental illness and a shortage in the mental health workforce. The distribution of the mental health workforce and facilities is imbalanced towards hospital care rather than community care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: There is an emerging consensus that the assessment and management of adverse outcomes in mental health, such as violence and self harm, is best achieved by approaches which incorporate validated tools using “structured professional judgement”. Although several useful tools have emerged from the literature, there is no clear consensus on the best way to integrate these with clinical practice. This paper describes a framework, the Forensicare Risk Assessment and Management Exercise (F.R.A.M.E.), employed by a statewide community forensic mental health service, which incorporates two structured professional judgement tools, and explicitly integrates these into case management and psychiatric treatment. The potential benefits of the framework are discussed in the context of contemporary trends in risk assessment and management. Conclusions: The F.R.A.M.E. appears to assist with the task of integrating risk assessment with clinical management. Formal evaluative research is indicated before it can be recommended for use by other services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this present paper is to highlight some of the issues faced by therapists and sign language interpreters when working with deaf patients. Conclusions: Key issues include linguistic, interpreting and role challenges, and potential threats to the therapeutic alliance. Recommendations are made in relation to preparation strategies and training for sign language interpreters and therapists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]